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Show RAIL WAGEINGREASE 1,939,399 EMPLOYEES WILL BENEFIT BENE-FIT BY RATE BASED ON COST OF LIVING. AWAITS M'ADOO'S APPROVAL Exhaustive Report of Commission Given Giv-en to Director General Protest From Brotherhood Leaders Scale of Increases. Washington, D. C, May 9 Wage advances ad-vances to 1,939,303 railroad employees, ranging from 1 per cent to the highest up to 43 per cent to the lowest paid workers, and aggregating $300,000,000, are made public In an exhaustive report re-port by the railroad wage commission to Director General McAdoo. Mr. McAdoo Is expected to adopt only part of the recommendations and probably will make a number of different dif-ferent alignments In deciding what wage Increases shall be granted. In general, the director general advocates ad-vocates higher pay for most classes of workmen to enable them to meet Increased In-creased living costs, but he has been represented as favoring proportionately proportionate-ly larger Increases for some classes than for others now making the same pay. lie also Is strongly opposed to granting wage Increases which might disarrange the general scheme of pay existing throughout other Industries. Leaders to Protest. The leaders of the four principal railway brotherhoods found on examining ex-amining the report that they had been recommended for less than half the Increases they bad asked of the railroad managements before government govern-ment control started and which they repeated before the commission. Their demands had been for an average of somewhat less than 40 per cent, and Increases for them average less than '20 per cent. Some union lenders who anticipated that the commission's recommendations recommenda-tions would not he for as great amounts as they had asked already have nppealed to Director General McAdoo Mc-Adoo to amend the proposed scale to give them higher pay. Others, however, how-ever, virtually have agreed to accept the report. The wage advances, which range all the way from $1 to $31 a month, nre Increases above the amount of pay each employee wf.s receiving on De-rember De-rember 31, 1915. Employees who have received advances since that date will benefit now to the extent of the differ-once differ-once between their present wage and that fixed by the wage commission. The net cost of the additional pay " to (he railroads Is estimated at S'JGO.-000.0(H). S'JGO.-000.0(H). This Is exclusive of the estimated esti-mated deficit of $800,000,000 in government govern-ment operation o! the railroads this year, as a result of which Director General McAdoo contemplates advancing ad-vancing passenger rates at least 2b per cent and freight rates possibly as much as 15 per cent. Based on Living Cost. The scheme of wage advances adopted adopt-ed Is based on an Inquiry Into the cost of living, which the commission found has Increased approximately 40 per cent to the average railroad employee em-ployee receiving $S5 n month. The commission favors a shorter average workday, presumably eight hours, but decided that In the war emergency the nation could not afford to put Into effect a reform that would slow down the war machinery and discriminate against other classes of workers being called upon for great sacrifices. Rates of overtime pay are not disturbed dis-turbed and the Increases are adjusted to the mileage basis of compensation of some employees, a road engineer, for example, receiving an Increase of 11 per cent In his mileage rate. A scheme of applying the Increases to piece work and overtime therefor Is also provided. An Important feature of the report was the recommendation that where the same service Is rendered the pay shall be the same, without discrimination discrimina-tion as to sex or race. Report of Commission. The report of the Commission, consisting con-sisting of Franklin K. Lane, secretary of the Interior; Charles C. McChord, J. Harry Covington, and William R. Willcox, is an exhaustive one. In part the report says : "The requests which have come to us for wage increases, would, if fully granted, Involve an additional outlay in wages of somewhat over $1,000,000,-000 $1,000,000,-000 per year in excess of the wage fund of last year', which exceeded $2,000, 000.000. Some asked for an increase of 100 per cent In their pay, and from this they graduated downward to 10 per cent. None were satisfied with their present wages. "An unprecedented call had come for men of certain trades in connection witli the new industries that had been created by the war In Europe, and 'his long before our entry Into the conflict Machinists and Iron workers of all kinds found themselves to be essential to the great munition plants and day labor of the most unskilled character rose into high demand. Cut Off Those Not Needed. "The commission recommends that during the period of government conduct con-duct of the railroads no salaries paid to ollicials who are not essential to the operation of the roads shall be charged as part of the operating expenses. ex-penses. "There should be constituted a tribunal tri-bunal or tribunals to continue the study of railroad labor problems, composed com-posed in part at least of men experienced experi-enced In this kind of work, for conditions con-ditions are ever changing." |